In the field of production of chemical substances such as ethanol, the technique to convert a waste material into a chemical substance by a catalytic reaction after gasification of the waste material has been being developed, and various relevant techniques are known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
For example, Patent Document 1 describes a waste regeneration treatment method in which a waste material, such as food residue, woody biomass, rice hull, agricultural residue, activated sludge, and waste plastic, is carbonated and also regenerated into useful liquid fuel. More specifically, in this method, a solid waste material is charged together with superheated steam into a carbonization-gasification furnace which is tilted downwardly as viewed from an inlet toward an outlet.
In this method, a waste material is carbonized by thermal decomposition without burning by indirectly heating the waste material being shut-off from air in the carbonization-gasification furnace by using an electric heater. In the furnace, the accumulated amount of the carbonized waste material is caused to increase toward the outlet, and a water gas shift reaction is caused by heat of the carbide to produce and dry distillation gas composed mainly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Then, in this method, the dry distillation gas was converted into liquid fuel by using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalyst.